Ms Redruth
by finmagik
Summary: [Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell] After the Meeting in the Old Star Inn, Ms. Redruth and Childermass talk


It was way he looked at her when he bowed to her during the meeting. Miss Redruth had never been looked like that, it wasn't a leer, and it wasn't a dismissal. But there was challenge in his glance. And it made bits of her tingle, in a odd but pleasant way. She listened as he addressed them and was as puzzled about the book as anyone. But Childermass had known Jonathan Strange (and Mr. Norrell but she didn't care about that), she wanted to know more.

Fredrica Redruth was her father's favorite child and whatever she wanted she got. She told her father that it was unfair that Childermass who had been so intimately involved in the recent magical history should sleep on rough, and that wasn't there a spare room over the stables or wasn't spare room off the cellar. Her father protested that he wasn't running an inn. She said just letting them stay over the stables or in that room in the celler wasn't a trial, she wasn't asking him to let them stay for weeks and help themselves to the spoons. Besides didn't he always preach Christian charity, wouldn't it be a fine example to not permit two weary travelers to stay one night and perhaps to give them some beer and a loaf of bread?

Her father commended her on her good heart.

So it was that night when the whole household was silent that Miss Redruth stole out of her room, all in her nightgown and bearing a candle.

Vinculus was asleep in the straw, his arms and legs outstretched, a insect crawling over his earlobe. Childermass could just see the upsweep of a pen stroke, he wondered what the letter was and what it meant.

He heard the creak on ladder and from the corner of his eye he could see a faint glow of a candle. He smiled, his sideways smile.

"What are you doing here Miss?" he asked.

This was before she had stepped off the last wrung of the ladder onto the floorboards.

She frightened by this and shocked, how did he know she was coming, she had been so quiet? And she was shocked by his impertinence . She stood there, for a minute in her long white opaque nightgown and night cap, candle in hand staring at him. He met her gaze smiling.

"Tell me about Jonathan Strange you knew you him," she said. "What sort of man was he?"

"You come here at night, in your shift, risking your good name just to ask about Johnathan Strange?" Childermass said.

"Yes," she took a step closer to him.

"You could ask tomorrow, in the morning," he said.

"You won't be here tomorrow, you'll leave at first light" she said quickly. "and take him with you." he gestured at the sleeping Vinculus.

"Aye, that I will," he said. And he got up and took a step towards her. "But that's not why your here is it?"

Her heart was thumping in her chest and her blood coursing in her ears, but the sensation she felt was not fear, quite the opposite it was anticipation. "I'd like to see that book you spoke of."

"No, you don't," he said.

"I warn you I could rouse the house if you try anything, I could--do magic," she said.

He grinned wider, his eyes glittered, he made a small gesture with his fingers, something seemed to shift in the room and the flame of her candle flickered and went out.

"I can do magic." He said.

He moved closer to her. Vinculus snored in the darkness, a horse whinnied beneath.

"So can I," she said and the candle flame sputtered, came back anew and went out again. "but not much."

"You are a very bold young lady," he said, his voice was soft in her ears. He was close enough, that she could reach out and touch his coat.

"No one will know, my reputation is safe," She said.

"You realize coming here, in the dead of night, alone with two men, it is not just your reputation you are risking," He said.

"You wouldn't," she said.

"You have no idea what I'd do," he said.

He was taller then her, and every nerve in her seemed to dance with that knowledge. She felt fear now, blending into the other strange sensation.

"Would you teach me magic, practical magic I mean. You know it as well Mr. Strange or Mr. Norrell," She said hurriedly, after all that was her real purpose here.

He laughed. "What would pay for this magical education?"

"I'd pay well, for it money any price you name, anything I can give," she said.

He was close to her, she felt pulled to him as if he was iron and she a magnet. Her knees trembled, her heart pounded, she felt reckless and ready.

"There is a price but it would be to dear for you Miss," he said. "Something you are willing to give and I might easily take."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You know what I mean," he said.

She wanted to give this thing, she knew exactly what it might be and now the nameless sensation had a name. She leaned forward tense, waiting.

He looked down at her, turned around and walked away. The light of her candle came back on.

"What do you mean by this, I thought- thought--"

"--someday you will be a magician, but I will not teach you. Until the text time we meet." He said with a ironic bow.

And that was the end. Miss Redruth did later become somewhat infamous, her magical ability was only the half it. However it is unknown whether or not she ever met with Childermass again. When asked if, she simply smiled, a queer smile.


End file.
